Guest Post- Stop Trying to Find Work-Life Balance. Start Creating It.

~Today’s Guest Post is courtesy of Career Coach and fellow Blogger, Julie Morris. Julie has graciously written a lovely article about stress management advice that I know my readers will love. She has a wonderful outlook on living life to the fullest and I am honored to feature such a great post on my tiny blog. Thank you, Julie! 🙂

Enjoy!

The modern business world pressures us to be workaholics while glamorizing the habit of staying busy as if it were an art form. Perhaps this is why so many entrepreneurs, freelancers and businesses professionals find themselves craving work-life balance. Some people have started to believe that work-life balance in modern society is actually just a myth. Speaking from experience, it’s very possible to achieve a healthy balance between work and personal time; we’ve just been going about it all wrong. As a society, we talk about “finding” work-life balance as if all we have to do is walk into a room and simply look for it. Instead of expecting the work-life balance to be an effortless task, we must actively change habits and shift priorities to build the happy, fulfilling life we’ve dreamed of.

If your New Year’s Resolution is to find more balance, here are some changes you can make today to start working towards your goal:

Unplug

I know, I know, you’ve heard it so many times before. Here’s why…

Unplugging (turning off the computer and putting down your phone) is important for us to do on a regular basis. In addition to improving work-life balance, studies have shown it has actual health benefits for the human body. Give your brain a rest, reduce stress and anxiety, sleep better, and get back to enjoying the moment.

Schedule It
If you’re having trouble finding time to unplug, try scheduling it on your calendar like you would for any other task. This holds true for ME time, exercise, self-care time, or any activities that will make you feel less stressed about work.

Start Small
When you first start to prioritize yourself, it can feel strange. If you’re finding it difficult or even shameful to pull yourself away from important projects and deadlines for the sake of reading a book or relaxing with friends, here’s a tip that might help. Start small. Instead of scheduling a whole hour for self-care time, try blocking off a smaller window of time. The length of time is up to you. What feels realistic to you today? Even if you start with just five minutes per day, you will eventually start to feel the benefits – and you can always work your way up from there.

Shift Your Perspective
Instead of beating yourself up for the things you didn’t accomplish by the end of the day, start re-training your brain to focus on positivity. Business coach and former Google employee Jenny Blake offers the following advice: At the end of your workday, create a list of everything you did accomplish that day, even if it was only chipping away at a much larger project.

Work-life balance isn’t something that can be found because it isn’t something that just magically happens. You have to prioritize it and work for it, just like anything else in life. It may feel strange scheduling time for yourself at first. You may even feel a little guilty not checking your work emails. Over time, however, you’ll start to find that you’re less burnt out and more productive at work because you’ve created some healthy boundaries and prioritized your own well-being. Optimizing your home for stress-free living wouldn’t hurt either. You get enough stress from work.